CASE STUDY
ABM Campaign for an Automotive Leader
As the creative lead behind concept and design, I crafted a personalized ABM campaign for Adlook, targeting a Japanese automotive leader. The strategy seamlessly blended Adlook’s branding with innovation, sparking curiosity and delivering a clear, impactful message.
01.
Introduction
Adlook is a fast-growing brand, making a strong and consistent visual identity a top priority in its communication. Every design choice—from color palette to composition—was carefully crafted to reinforce brand awareness and ensure visual recognition.
The campaign also needed to reflect Adlook’s core technology: deep learning. This meant infusing the visuals with a modern, high-tech aesthetic that captured the essence of AI-driven innovation. Striking the right balance between branding and a cutting-edge, futuristic feel was key to creating a compelling narrative.
In this case study, I’ll break down not only the creative approach but also how Generative AI has redefined the design process. Compared to a similar project in 2022, AI-driven tools dramatically streamlined workflows, enhancing both efficiency and creative possibilities.
Project details:
Role
CREATIVE DIRECTION
ART DIRECTION
CONSULTINGAssets design
DELIVERABLES
Creative Concept
CREATIVE STRATEGY
Key Visual
SOCIAL MEDIA
LANDING PAGE
ANIMATED VIDEOS
generative ai
TOOLS
Midjourney
runway
Photoshop
Illustrator
INDESIGN
After Effects
READYMAG
Client
adlook
Year
2024
02.
The Challenge
he key challenge was crafting a campaign that maintained strong brand recognition while embodying a futuristic, tech-driven aesthetic aligned with Adlook’s deep learning technology. As a young brand, establishing a consistent and recognizable visual identity was crucial.
At the same time, the campaign needed to capture the attention of a leading Japanese automotive manufacturer. The goal was to create visuals that not only resonated with Adlook’s technological DNA but also sparked curiosity and engagement from the prospect, ensuring a seamless blend of branding and innovation.
Moodboard with AI-generated visuals from MidJourney:
03.
Solution
To create a cohesive and standout visual concept, I used Midjourney to generate futuristic graphics featuring cars marked with the Adlook logo. The goal was to spark the prospect’s curiosity—making them wonder what new car brand had entered the market and what was behind this project. Visually, the campaign was set in a dynamic, high-tech environment filled with streaks of light, symbolizing the advanced deep learning technology at the core of Adlook.
A distinctive element of the design was the introduction of yellow lighting accents. This subtle "wink" to the prospect referenced the way enthusiasts of this Japanese automotive brand often customize their vehicles. This approach not only captured attention but also signaled that we had done our research—we understood the prospect, their industry, and their community.
Maintaining Adlook’s dominant green color was also a key priority, reinforcing brand identity and recognition. This ensured that the campaign was not only visually striking but also strategically aligned with Adlook’s communication goals, blending innovation, technology, and strong brand awareness.
Key visual draft:
04.
Process
The Adlook automotive campaign is a great example of how my design workflow has evolved over just two years, thanks to the integration of Generative AI—primarily Midjourney.
2022
From Traditional Methods to AI-Driven Efficiency
In 2022, we executed a similar automotive campaign targeting one of the most well-known car manufacturers from the U.S. The Adlook campaign was inspired by that project, following a best practice within our creative team: recycling strong concepts whenever possible and adapting them to new campaigns. This approach not only streamlines the creative process but also optimizes production time.
2022 Key visual for automotive:
Key Visual Development in 2022 – A Manual, Time-Intensive Approach
Back in 2022, the process of creating a Key Visual for an automotive campaign involved multiple manual steps, requiring extensive time and effort:
Stock Image Selection: After finalizing the creative concept, the first step was sourcing the right car images from Shutterstock. This was a major challenge, as most high-quality car images were only available under editorial licenses, restricting commercial use. Finding images that met the campaign’s requirements while also being legally usable was time-consuming.
Color Adjustments: Once a suitable image was found, the next step was adjusting the car’s color to fit the campaign’s visual direction—in this case, shades of blue.
Background Sourcing and Editing: A separate background image had to be selected from Shutterstock and then color-adjusted to match the campaign’s aesthetic.
Image Composition: The final stage involved merging the car and background in Photoshop. This required extensive manual retouching, including adjusting shadows, highlights, and reflections to create a cohesive and realistic final image.
Below is a Photoshop file showcasing the detailed layer work required to achieve a high-quality Key Visual in 2022. Each element demanded precise adjustments, making the process labor-intensive and time-consuming.
This traditional method, while effective, highlights the challenges that AI-driven tools like Midjourney have since addressed—streamlining the workflow and significantly reducing the time needed to produce high-end visuals.
2024
Key Visual Creation with Generative AI – Efficiency, Control, and Creative Freedom
Integrating Generative AI into the creative process has transformed the way I develop campaign visuals. While the initial phase—refining prompts, establishing a consistent style, and ensuring visual coherence—requires significant effort, the long-term benefits far outweigh the time investment.
At the start, crafting the perfect prompt structure and fine-tuning the aesthetic in Midjourney took time, much like traditional design methods. However, once the foundation was set, the production of additional assets became drastically faster. The ability to generate high-quality visuals in a controlled and repeatable way allowed me to maintain creative consistency while significantly accelerating the workflow.
LANDING PAGE DESIGN:
SELECTED AI GENERATED IMAGES:
Greater Creative Control, Stronger Campaign Execution
Unlike traditional stock photography and manual compositing, Generative AI gives me unprecedented control over style, composition, and adaptation. This means I can quickly create visually engaging compositions, experiment with variations, and adapt assets to different campaign messages—all while preserving a unified artistic direction.
Not only does this approach make the campaign more visually compelling, but it also enhances message alignment. By rapidly generating visuals tailored to specific communication needs, I can ensure that each creative asset reinforces the campaign narrative, making the overall impact much stronger and more cohesive.
LINKEDIN DOC AD EXAMPLES:
05.
Results
The campaign successfully met the brief’s objectives, delivering a visually compelling and strategically aligned execution. It received highly positive feedback from Adlook, which was reflected in the broader adoption of campaign assets. The landing page I designed performed so well that Adlook adapted it into multiple languages for use across different markets. The same applied to advertising creatives and the Key Visual, which became a foundation for their ongoing marketing efforts.
Beyond strong creative execution, the campaign also excelled in driving engagement and generating high-value touchpoints—one of its primary goals. It helped initiate conversations with the Japanese automotive leader across multiple markets, including Spain, Italy, and France. Additionally, the Adlook team localized the assets for further expansion, leading to 88 touchpoints in the initial phase (August–December) and 153 new touchpoints after rolling out to new regions such as Brazil, Mexico, and the U.S.
LANDING PAGE PROMO ANIMATION:
Outperforming In-House Campaigns
Compared to Adlook’s internally managed automotive campaign, our ABM strategy delivered superior engagement at a fraction of the budget:
10x better cost efficiency per new follower
Despite operating with a significantly lower budget, our campaign generated more followers than Adlook’s larger-scale campaign, proving the effectiveness of strong creative execution combined with a well-optimized digital strategy.
Higher impressions per euro spent
The ABM campaign achieved a comparable level of visibility to Adlook’s larger campaigns but with significantly lower investment, demonstrating the impact of a highly targeted and optimized approach.
Stronger audience engagement
The combination of high-impact visuals and a strategically designed digital framework resulted in more organic interest, proving that well-executed ABM can rival large-scale marketing efforts.